It’s not hard to fall in love for Sarajevo. One of the people who will cherish that love for all time is Remy Ourdan. That love was his main goal in organizing a reuonion with people who share his love: the meeting of war journalists in Sarajevo for the 20 years of the siege. Remy is a war journalist from the Paris newspaper Le Monde. His professional career began in 1992, when he arrived in Sarajevo as a 23 year old freelancer, not knowing he will stay there for five full years.

"After the liberation of Sarajevo, I wanted to stay in the region because I wanted to see how will things work out after the Dayton agreement", said Remy for Radiosarajevo.ba. 20 years after the Siege, Remy is one of the lead organizers of the meeting of war journalists planned for the first week of april in 2012. It is not a "manifestation" or a "event" for a chosen few, but a spontaneous return to a city with the goal of reliving memories and meeting old friends.

Reunion as a logical move

"The idea of our return was there for a few years, but in September of 2011, during a photo exhibition, a few of us decided to make a book about the war in Sarajevo. 45 of photoreporters gave us their photographs and the book slowly began to take shape. We produced it ourselves and it is our gift to the city", said Ourdan. Photographies from the book will be put on display in Holiday Inn on 6th of April as part of the meeting.

Why is Sarajevo so important to everybody – was one of the frequently asked questions for many war journalists of that time?

"For me, personally, it is very important. When you're 23 years old and you spend four or five years somewhere - it is very important. It was natural for me to come to Sarajevo and to care what is happening around me. It is a part of my life story and not just my professional one. Many reporters are attached to Sarajevo on a special kind of way - because there was a insane war raging there. It was different from other wars, because Sarajevo was under siege. Most of us were in wars, but to be under siege and to survive under siege - that was a whole new experience. One of the reasons was that most of us were Europeans. Many of my colleagues told me that they felt at home in Sarajevo".

Fixers and other local people

We talked with Remy about the huge role their assistents, who, in journalist jargon are called 'fixers', and local journalists had in reporting the news from the enclosed Sarajevo.

"It was similar as with other Bosnians who worked for international organizations. They had a certain significance for their environment. They all earned money and had access to food supplies, which they used to feed their families, friends and neighbors. It is a thing well known - but it's worth emphasising. Fixers, journalists, photographers, drivers - they all took great risks! During the bombardments normal people hid in cellars or tried to find other hiding places. International organizations took cover, UNPROFOR took cover, citizens took cover - but journalists and their assistents went outside to film it. That's the difference between us and them. We, foreigners, were, in a way, voluntarily in this war, and local people were involved whether they liked it or not. When a local reporter comes out of his cover to film the bombardment - that's courage. Money wasn't the crucial motive. Many of my colleagues worked in BiH because they wanted to publish the story so the world could see what's happening in Sarajevo. Of course, we had lengthy debates about the fact that world is not reacting to the suffering of the people from Sarajevo. That was very dissapointing for us and I can only imagine how dissapointing it was for them. These were people who were totally devoted to the principles of journalism and, more importantly, to Sarajevo. It was their way of fighting and surviving".

Remy will talk about the specifics of reporting from Sarajevo on the meeting, but we asked him does he think that the siege would look different or be shorter if we had Facebook and Twitter then.

"It's hard to imagine... Today, on Facebook you can see so many evidences and artifacts of the war, but the fact is that war in Sarajevo was extremely well covered by the media. It was different from other wars in that way, including the closest one on Kosovo, which lasted a few months but we never got a deeper picture of what is happening to the people. With the exception of a few enclaves, war in Bosnia was extremely well covered. The world KNEW every day what is happening here, but the world decided to not get involved. With Facebook and Twitter we would have more details, but the outcome of the war would be similar".

In the meantime, Remy Ourdan covered the crisis points all over the world - Rwanda, Serbia after the fall of Milošević, Congo, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. He regularly follows important war trials in Hague for the criminals from former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He did reports from wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, covered the Egyptian revolution and the civil war in Libya. He's an author of several books and owns caffe '61' in the 19th county of Paris - a space where he often exhibits works of his photoreporter colleagues.

What did we do to earn this?

Have people in Sarajevo changed in these 20 years after the war? Did we really earned all that passion and care you give us these days? Do you get the feeling that we squandered our chances, that we could have used them better?

"Friendship and passion towards Sarajevo doesn't need any more explanations. All the people we met while preparing this meeting, the people from Modul memorije, Mediacentra, Fama productions, Kriterion... Those are all nice people who gave us a warm welcome, who wanted to help us and who wanted to hear our memories and compare them to their own. I have a feeling there are still strong connections between the city and 'us', even 20 years later. I know that the situation is difficult, but Sarajevo is wonderful. I've traveled all over the world and really - Sarajevo is wonderful".

Don't you have any remarks on our expense - we tried to pull out a answer from Remy Ourdan.

"Of course I have remarks, but I still see the city in a 99% positive light", concluded the french reporter.

REMINDER: Citizens of Sarajevo are welcomed to join the reporters during their commemoration of the Sarajevo siege. More details about the program you can find here.

As the media sponsor, RadioSarajevo will keep you further informed about the event. You can read memories of the war years from foreign journalists, reporters and citizens in our theme collumn "Siege of Sarajevo".